Greenspan's Stock Option Plan

Share

Greenspan's Stock Option Plan

Alan Greenspan said that in the effort to deal with the problems raised by the costly collapse of Enron, regulations should be changed to force companies to treat lucrative stock options for top executives as a business expense.

Greenspan said without this change, which is strongly opposed by the business community, investors will continue to receive inaccurate information on the true financial status of a company.

The debate over stock options has taken on new urgency since the December collapse and bankruptcy of Enron (ENRNQ). Enron executives reaped millions of dollars in profits by cashing in their stock options before the company's share price plummeted.

His campaign for changes represents a rare break for the Republican chairman of the Fed with the Bush administration. President Bush said "while I hate to get in a debate" with Greenspan, he did not believe stock options should be treated as a business expense.

\—

__Paul Allen's deal: __ Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen has entered into a deal to sell all of his 19.95 million common shares of USA Networks (USA) for $28.50 apiece, a regulatory filing reported.

Allen plans to sell the shares of the media firm "to various purchasers" and, the sale is expected to close on or before May 7, said a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

\—

Hynix hedging: Hynix Semiconductor, the world's third-largest memory chipmaker, said it wanted to sell non-memory operations, not memory facilities at the heart of a collapsed $3.4-billion deal.

Hynix (HXSCY) named a new chief executive and said the former one would stay to lead redoubled efforts to sell assets. But analysts doubted the move would satisfy creditors that are owed over $5 billion.

The announcement came three days after Hynix's board of directors lost a potential $3.4 billion sale of memory plants to U.S. rival Micron Technology (MU).

\—

Nintendo invades Europe: Thousands of video game fans flocked to midnight store openings across Europe as Nintendo launched its GameCube console on Friday at a sharp discount to its rivals.

Nintendo (NTDOF) is battling for control of a $20 billion-plus market that now rivals film and music for popularity.

"The tussle is between Gamecube and Xbox for who gets to come in second behind PlayStation 2. And that is just too tough to call," said Toby Scott, games analyst.

Icon (ICON), which was effectively taken over by Dutch consultancy Lost Boys in January, was one of the stars of the Stockholm stock market at the height of the dot-com boom and then fell to penny-stock status last year.